Meta to use your AI conversations for Ads, with no opt-out option

Dubai: If you've been treating your chats with Meta AI like a private conversation, it's time to think again. Starting December 16th, those casual conversations are becoming premium fuel for Meta's massive advertising engine, whether you realized it or not.

Here's what's changing: Meta confirmed that both voice and text conversations with its AI assistant across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will soon be used to personalize your feed and ads. Mention you're planning a wedding in a chat with the AI, and don't be surprised when your Instagram feed becomes a parade of florists, caterers, and venue ads.

The timing is particularly telling. This expansion of Meta's data-gathering net comes as the company reported staggering $46 billion in advertising revenue last quarter alone. Now, with access to our direct conversations, Meta's targeting capabilities are about to become frighteningly precise.

"We want to ensure users see less of the content they're not interested in," according to Meta, framing the move as a user experience improvement. But let's be clear: this isn't just about hiding posts you don't like. It's about mining your most direct and intentional queries, the questions you actually ask aloud or type out, to build a more detailed profile of you than ever before.

The rollout begins on December 16, 2025, though users will start seeing notifications about the change as early as next week. Notably, regions with stronger privacy laws like the UK and EU will get a delayed implementation.

There is, of course, some fine print. Meta says conversations about sensitive topics like health conditions or political views won't be used for ad targeting. But here's the catch everyone should note: you can't opt out of this data collection while using Meta AI. Your only choice is to adjust how much that data personalizes your overall experience.

Christy Harris, Meta's privacy and data policy manager, emphasized the company's commitment to transparency. But for the billions of people who use these apps daily, the real question remains: when every whispered question and casual query becomes ad fodder, what exactly are we giving up?

One thing's certain, the line between assistant and advertiser just got much, much blurrier.